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Chazz Palminteri

 
Quotes By: Chazz Palminteri
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"Oh, great reviews are the worst. They mislead you more than the bad ones, because they only fuel your ego. Then you only want another one, like potato chips or something, and the best thing you get is fat and bloated. I'd rather just refuse, thanks."

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Actor: Chazz Palminteri
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Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Actors
  • Born: May 15, 1951 in Bronx, New York, New York
  • Occupation: Actor, Writer, Director
  • Active: '90s-2000s
  • Major Genres: Drama, Comedy
  • Career Highlights: The Usual Suspects, Bullets Over Broadway, A Bronx Tale
  • First Major Screen Credit: A Bronx Tale (1993)

Biography

Actor, playwright, and screenwriter Chazz Palminteri is anything but an overnight success. For him, stardom was the result of nearly 20 years of relative obscurity as he worked his way from nightclubs to off-Broadway to small television roles. It was only after he penned his one-man 35-character autobiographical play A Bronx Tale that the then-36-year-old actor hit the big time. A big, burly Italian, he has since specialized in playing heavies and other bad guys.

Born Calogero Lorenzo Palminteri, the son of a Bronx bus driver, he first dreamed of an acting career at age 13. Following high school, however, Palminteri became a singer and spent over a decade as a lounge crooner; he was also a member of a pop group. Though he made a decent living, Palminteri couldn't forget his initial aspiration and, in 1982, devoted himself full-time to acting. While attending acting classes and auditioning, Palminteri supported himself as a doorman and spent the next few years working off-Broadway in small roles. In 1988, he headed to Southern California to work as a bit-player on television, making his debut appearance on Hill Street Blues. After two years of playing relatively inconsequential parts, a frustrated Palminteri took matters into his own hands and, on five yellow legal pads, wrote the script for A Bronx Tale. The play debuted at the West Coast Ensemble theater to critical raves. He then took it to Playhouse 91 in New York, where it played to standing-room-only crowds for four months. One night, Robert DeNiro caught it and was greatly impressed by both Palminteri and his play. Shortly afterward, Palminteri was visited by Hollywood producers wanting to by the film rights. Cagily, he refused to sell unless he was guaranteed the lead. Four years later, with help from DeNiro, who would use it for his directorial debut and play a supporting role, Palminteri's wish came true. Released in 1993, A Bronx Tale received critical praise but did not catch on with audiences. Still, it was enough to jump-start Palminteri's film career and, in 1994, he co-starred in Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway as Cheech, a gangster thug with a love of the theater. Palminteri's portrayal of Cheech earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 1996, another of Palminteri's plays, Faithful, the offbeat story of a strange relationship between a suicidal housewife and the thug her husband hires to kill her, became a film starring himself and Cher. A subsequent turn as the malevolent headmaster of a prestigious private school in the same year's Diabolique found Palminteri hanging up his gangster hat to turn in an especially menacing performance, with subsequent roles in Mulholland Falls, Analyze This, and Just Like Mona showing an actor who had perfected roles on both sides of the law and seemed to show little interest in branching out. Vocal performances in Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure and the computer animated 2005 comedy Hoodwinked made impressive use of the screen heavy's distinctive voice, and gave the longtime screen actor a chance to have some fun without necessarily having the stress of being on camera. A rare voyage into weekly television followed when Palminteri served as boss to one of television's greatest detectives in the 2005 revival of Kojack (this time featuring actor Ving Rhames in the role of the lollipop -munching cop), with a subsequent role as a crooked cop in Wayne Kramer's hyper-stylized action entry Running Scared finding the actor remaining safely behind the badge. One of six co-recipients of a Special Jury Prize for Dramatic Ensemble Performance at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival for his participation in A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Palminteri cold next be seen as a diamond-hunting gangster searching for a most unusual thief in the Wayans brothers comedy Little Man (2006).

Since then, Palminteri has divided his time between family life and his film career. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Wikipedia: Chazz Palminteri
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Chazz Palminteri

Palminteri at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival
Born Calogero Lorenzo Palminteri
May 15, 1951 (1951-05-15) (age 58)
The Bronx, New York, U.S.
Occupation Actor/Writer
Years active 1984–present
Spouse(s) Gianna Ranaudo (1992-present)

Calogero Lorenzo "Chazz" Palminteri (born May 15, 1951) is an American actor and writer, best known for his performances in The Usual Suspects, A Bronx Tale, Mulholland Falls and his Academy Award nominated role for Best Supporting Actor in Bullets Over Broadway, which he lost to Martin Landau for Ed Wood.

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Early life and film career

Palminteri, a Sicilian/Italian American,[1] was born in the Bronx, New York, the son of Rose, a homemaker, and Lorenzo Palminteri, a bus driver.[2] The Bronx has had considerable influence on his work, particularly in A Bronx Tale, a play which he wrote and adapted into a 1993 film which starred him and Robert De Niro. The film was acclaimed and opened doors to Palminteri as an actor, and supporting roles in Hollywood films such as The Usual Suspects and Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway followed. Palminteri was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the latter, but he lost to Martin Landau for Ed Wood.

Palminteri has had acclaimed dramatic performances in films such as The Perez Family, Jade and Diabolique, as well as comedic roles in films such as Analyze This and Down to Earth. During its run, Palminteri did many advertisements for Vanilla Coke, in which he portrayed a mob boss who would threaten celebrities if they didn't praise the taste of the product in question, and then let them walk away with the Vanilla Coke to "reward their curiosity", touching on its slogan at the time. Palminteri has voiced characters in various animated films, the most notable being 2006's Hoodwinked.

He made his directorial debut with the 2002 television film, "Women vs. Men". He has also directed the 2004 film Noel which starred Alan Arkin and Susan Sarandon. Palminteri's recent efforts include A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Running Scared and Arthur and the Minimoys.

Chazz Palminteri starred on Broadway in A Bronx Tale the semi-autobiographical one-man show he first performed off-Broadway in 1989. The production, directed by Jerry Zaks and with music by John Gromada, began previews October 4, 2008 at the Walter Kerr Theatre and opened on October 25, running for 18 weeks. Palminteri plays 18 roles in "A Bronx Tale," which depicts a rough childhood on the streets of the Bronx. The play ran for two months at Playhouse 91 in 1989. Robert De Niro saw this show there and made his directorial debut with the big-screen version, co-starring with Palminteri.[3]

On October 26, 2009, it was announced that Palminteri will guest-star on Modern Family later this season.[4]

Personal life

Palminteri lives in Bedford, New York.[5] He is married to actress Gianna Ranaudo, with whom he has two children: Dante Lorenzo (born October 11, 1995) and Gabriella Rose (born December 25, 2001). He often visits Nassau County Long Island to visit relatives.[citation needed]

Filmography

References

  1. ^ http://members.aol.com/morgands2/text/palminteri.htm
  2. ^ http://www.filmreference.com/film/2/Chazz-Palminteri.html
  3. ^ http://www.broadway.com/gen/Buzz_Story.aspx?ci=551402
  4. ^ Natalie Abrams. "Elizabeth Banks and Chazz Palminteri to Guest-Star on Modern Family". TVGuide.com. http://www.tvguide.com/News/Elizabeth-Chazz-ModernFamily-1011242.aspx. 
  5. ^ Costaregni, Susie (2006-12-03). "Christmas concert to help children in Rwanda". The Advocate (Stamford, CT), "The Dish" column. http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/scn-sa-costaregni.12.3dec03,0,7356135.column?coll=stam-news-utility. Retrieved 2006-12-23. 

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

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Quotes By. Copyright © 2008 QuotationsBook.com. All rights reserved.  Read more
Actor. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Chazz Palminteri".  Read more

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